Gordon Strachan

[resk]

"It wiz the heat, the referee, the other team timewasting, the ballboys, and those erseholes on P&B saying before the game that we were pish."

[conley]

"It wiz the heat, the referee, the other team timewasting, the ballboys, and those erseholes on P&B saying before the game that we were pish."

To be fair I haven't heard WGS (remember the days when almost all of us affectionately referred to him as that) use any of those excuses. He tends to blame bad luck and again, to be fair, at times, he has a valid point.

[pandarilla]

No one so far has been unsupportive of the team tho have they??plus I doubt any players are watching this thread worrying if it will make them better footballers

You're the guy that moans like f**k about the boss but in the staff meeting says nothing.

In the same way that people are perfectly entitled to criticise whoever they like on here other people are perfectly entitled to call them out on it.

[Monkey Tennis]

21 minutes ago, conley said:

To be fair I haven't heard WGS (remember the days when almost all of us affectionately referred to him as that) use any of those excuses. He tends to blame bad luck and again, to be fair, at times, he has a valid point.

Don't start me on "luck".

In that last campaign, we enjoyed at least as much good fortune as we endured bad.  That line from Strachan really annoyed me.  A totally fatalistic abdication of responsibility that bears no scrutiny at all.

[pandarilla]

Don't start me on "luck".

In that last campaign, we enjoyed at least as much good fortune as we endured bad.  That line from Strachan really annoyed me.  A totally fatalistic abdication of responsibility that bears no scrutiny at all.

Football is football. It's a sport, not a science. Some chances go in, some hit the post, or the arse of the defender.

Yes you can help make your own luck but only to a point. I've never seen such luck as had by the Irish in that campaign. When they needed a goal late on they got one. Pumping long balls into boxes isn't a great tactic but sometimes it works. Sometimes the ball breaks the right way. For them it usually did.

There are these instances in every game of football and they make a difference.

Just to be clear I'm not saying it's all about this (obviously) but football fans rarely give enough attention to it. Sometimes you just don't get what you deserve.

Over the course of a club campaign they usually shake out enough but remember a national campaign is highlighted much more due to the fewer games.

Strachan said yesterday it's the matter of a couple of goals here or there and he's right.

[Monkey Tennis]

5 minutes ago, pandarilla said:

 

Football is football. It's a sport, not a science. Some chances go in, some hit the post, or the arse of the defender.

Yes you can help make your own luck but only to a point. I've never seen such luck as had by the Irish in that campaign. When they needed a goal late on they got one. Pumping long balls into boxes isn't a great tactic but sometimes it works. Sometimes the ball breaks the right way. For them it usually did.

There are these instances in every game of football and they make a difference.

Just to be clear I'm not saying it's all about this (obviously) but football fans rarely give enough attention to it. Sometimes you just don't get what you deserve.

Over the course of a club campaign they usually shake out enough but remember a national campaign is highlighted much more due to the fewer games.

Strachan said yesterday it's the matter of a couple of goals here or there and he's right.

 

Remember the long ball those Irish hit into the box in the last minute at Celtic Park that Hanley headed against his own bar.

Strachan doesn't, because it doesn't suit his self serving, inaccurate narrative regarding the campaign.

Of course, football is not an exact science.  Of course luck can be a factor in a short, tight sequence of games.  The fact is that it's not a factor that had a particularly negative impact on how we did.  There are plenty of other examples of fortune having smiled on us at points.

[AyrExile]

Unfortunately Strachan is making a rod for his own back here. I wanted to give him another chance as he did a lot of good things and gave us hope after the Levein debacle. However the last half of the campaign he was poor and one of my main gripes was that he selected his pals rather than the best players available. Qualifying lasts 14months of which players come into and out of form and I felt he was slow to select form players he didn't know. By giving him another campaign I hoped he would look back and  sort out the errors. Here we are again and Rhodes/McCormack are watching the game in a pub somewhere and lower league scottish players are picked whilst epl ones are ignored. Can't see how he is going to push us over the line when not picking the best players available. Whilst I also find some of his media comments amusing I thought he might of realised that these guys will come back to bury him  if results don't go the right way. 

[pandarilla]

Remember the long ball those Irish hit into the box in the last minute at Celtic Park that Hanley headed against his own bar.

Strachan doesn't, because it doesn't suit his self serving, inaccurate narrative regarding the campaign.

Of course, football is not an exact science.  Of course luck can be a factor in a short, tight sequence of games.  The fact is that it's not a factor that had a particularly negative impact on how we did.  There are plenty of other examples of fortune having smiled on us at points.

For me it wasn't so much about our bad luck but more a case of the Irish luck allowing them to pip us.

I absolutely take your point. I don't think we were necessarily unlucky and pretty much got the points we deserved (but I'd argue if it still mattered we'd have held out against the poles in the penultimate game).

The Irish got points they didn't deserve and jumped us. That's football. We need to do better, as they shouldn't have had a chance to do this. That's why I'm not saying everything was fine and rosey I'm just saying he deserves another crack.

[Monkey Tennis]

5 minutes ago, pandarilla said:

 

For me it wasn't so much about our bad luck but more a case of the Irish luck allowing them to pip us.

I absolutely take your point. I don't think we were necessarily unlucky and pretty much got the points we deserved (but I'd argue if it still mattered we'd have held out against the poles in the penultimate game).

The Irish got points they didn't deserve and jumped us. That's football. We need to do better, as they shouldn't have had a chance to do this. That's why I'm not saying everything was fine and rosey I'm just saying he deserves another crack.

 

Despite how I'm apparently coming across in this discussion, I'm not actually all that violently opposed to him getting another crack.

On balance, I'd have binned him, but I don't think it was that clear cut either way.  The lack of obvious replacements was the strongest argument in support of retaining him.

I do find his comments bloody infuriating though.  The support from fans he got at the end of that last campaign was mindless.  I also felt and maintain that his focus on 'luck' is thoroughly dishonest and cowardly.

[Scary Bear]

Football is football. It's a sport, not a science. Some chances go in, some hit the post, or the arse of the defender.

Yes you can help make your own luck but only to a point. I've never seen such luck as had by the Irish in that campaign. When they needed a goal late on they got one. Pumping long balls into boxes isn't a great tactic but sometimes it works. Sometimes the ball breaks the right way. For them it usually did.

There are these instances in every game of football and they make a difference.

Just to be clear I'm not saying it's all about this (obviously) but football fans rarely give enough attention to it. Sometimes you just don't get what you deserve.

Over the course of a club campaign they usually shake out enough but remember a national campaign is highlighted much more due to the fewer games.

Strachan said yesterday it's the matter of a couple of goals here or there and he's right.

That seals it then. Strachan must go. Can't be having unlucky people like WGS managing the team. Get in Martin O'Neill ASAP, lucky wee Irish leprechaun b*****d that he is. ;-)

[Scary Bear]

I have become a bit jaded with Strachan's interviews. Some of his comments have me rolling my eyes. However, he's the man in charge. Might as well hope it goes well for him.

[pub car king]

The squad is on its arse withdrawals and injuries yet still no call up for certain players. Ie Rhodes and McCormack who have between them had about 50 million spent on them. It's not as if we've a team full of galacticos.

[pandarilla]

Strachan clearly hates the media process and doesn't take it seriously. Even if you think he should surely you can't get annoyed with what he's actually saying.

He's nowhere near telling it like he thinks it is. He's pretty much trolling. Why get bothered by it?

[williemillersmoustache]

I was certainly impressed with his reasons for selecting Tierney, "no headphones, good haircut".

[Guest DAVIDB69]

The squad is on its arse withdrawals and injuries yet still no call up for certain players. Ie Rhodes and McCormack who have between them had about 50 million spent on them. It's not as if we've a team full of galacticos.

Rhodes doesn't play club football though like a lot of this squad which is a major problem.

Allaardyce told hart get a club or you ain't playing.

I though this was a stance Strachan said he was going to take

[HeartsOfficialMoaner]

9 minutes ago, williemillersmoustache said:

I was certainly impressed with his reasons for selecting Tierney, "no headphones, good haircut".

Burke. 

[Gordopolis]

I don't agree at all with the sentiment about Strachan's utterances not mattering...  It's not as if he can point to a record that offsets the annoyance.

That's precisely the difference. He wins and qualifies, his soundbites do not matter. Fact is his record is just okay and he has not qualified.

[MarkoRaj]

I don't think I've even listened to a single interview from him over the last 2 years apart from post match ones. Seems an odd thing to get upset over when you can just ignore it. It's not like it makes a difference in the grand scheme of things; he will be judged by results.

[Gordopolis]

Rhodes doesn't play club football though like a lot of this squad which is a major problem.

Allaardyce told hart get a club or you ain't playing.

I though this was a stance Strachan said he was going to take

Yet hart starts tonight vs Slovakia

[Monkey Tennis]

Why the Hell should we be accepting of an approach to addressing the public which might amount to 'trolling'?

He's in a position at the helm of something that a great many people care a great deal about.  He should take that responsibility seriously.  He should take explaining himself seriously.  What a manager says matters.  Saying things is one of the main tools at his disposal in the job.

What sort of contemptuous arrogance is required to think that playing himself is fine?